transforming information into situational awareness · management systems (enms) technical refresh...
TRANSCRIPT
Transforming Information into
Situational Awareness Integrating existing tools and streamlining workflow for improved
operational visibility and efficiency
Case Study
Edge Technologies, Inc.
1881 Campus Commons Drive Suite 101 Reston, VA 20191
703-691-7900
www.edgeti.com
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Introduction
The United States Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) develops,
delivers, and sustains communications and information capabilities and provides the hardware
and software needed to execute Navy missions. This group embarked on a Enterprise Network
Management Systems (ENMS) technical refresh project as part of an ongoing effort to
constantly improve on their ability to monitor, manage, and control systems and networks
within their purview and to provide Network Operations (NetOps) situational awareness.
SPAWAR required an agile and responsive solution that would serve to increase operational
efficiency, be capable of monitoring a large and diverse group of components and information
systems, and would provide role-based visualizations suited to the needs of Operators, Analysts,
Officers, and Senior Command.
Project Goals and Challenges
At the outset of the project, the ENMS technical refresh team identified several high-level
objectives as well as specific areas where there was both the need and potential for efficiency
gains through optimized tool integrations, information visualizations and workflow.
Dynamically visualize the U.S. Navy state of readiness through situational awareness
across all mission areas
Develop a Common Operation Picture (COP) dashboard to provide near real-time
network and operations views
Increase operational efficiency
Quick identification and resolution of network faults and congestion
Map NetOps issues to mission impact
Monitor components of both shore-based and fleet information systems
Integration of several BMC Software applications with other third-party tools
Single Sign-On – integration with Common Access Cards (CAC)
The Alternatives
Before choosing to implement the Edge Technologies solution, SPAWAR considered two other
alternatives: Utilizing existing tools and in-house custom development.
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Utilize Existing Tools
While some existing products had their own dashboard capabilities, none were capable of fully
unifying the variety of applications and data sources and optimizing workflow in order to meet
the project goals.
In-House Custom Development
SPAWAR considered a Do It Yourself development effort including the use of both Government
Off-the-Shelf (GOTS) software and the Ozone Widget Framework (OWF). OWF is an open-
source web application that is designed to allow users to access all of their tools from one
location. The time and costs associated with the design, development, deployment, and on-
going support of a suitable solution were deemed to be excessive when compared to a
Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) alternative. Ultimately the SPAWAR team decided to leverage
and integrate specific elements of the GOTS code with the commercial solution provided by
Edge Technologies.
The Edge Technologies Approach
After an initial demo and subsequent Proof of Concept, SPAWAR saw that Edge could deliver
quick time to value and low risk with the COTS-based approach. The desired integrations were
pre-built and Edge’s extensive experience with the BMC Software products and proven success
in integrating these tools provided an added level of confidence.
The Solution
The solution is comprised of multiple sets of dashboards used to provide role-based access to
numerous capabilities such as:
IT Service Management including: Incident, Asset, Change, Service Level, Problem,
Configuration, Server, and Knowledge Management
Geo-located event and service status details (in development)
Discovery and dependency mappings
Availability and performance reporting
Infrastructure and device-level statistics and key performance indicators
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Figure 1.Network Operations Top-Level Dashboard*
Figure 2.Ship Details Dashboard
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Figure 3.Device Details Dashboard
What these images don’t fully illustrate is the power of the underlying system. The combination
of enPortal® and AppBoard® from Edge Technologies was used to provide:
Secure, CAC-based Single-Sign-On with domain/role-based privileges and views
Proxied views of existing web-based content from several applications
Data-layer integration with some of these same data sources for completely new
visualizations
Integration of SPAWAR’s event and service management applications, with geo-location
of status information overlaid onto a map
An integrated database used to cache and manipulate data from external systems in
order to allow for required visualizations, improve overall system responsiveness, and
reduce load on external systems
A consistent, SPAWAR-branded look and feel throughout, seamlessly integrating existing
views from other tools with powerful new visualizations
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Figure 4. System data source integration
The Edge Technologies system completely masks this complexity from the end users. Based on
their login credentials users are provided with Single Sign-On to all required applications and
directed to the appropriate dashboard. They don’t need to know where the data is coming from
– they just need access to the right data. As they move from high-level dashboard to drill-down,
the needed data is seamlessly integrated.
The Benefits
SPAWAR was able to achieve the goals and address the challenges outlined at the outset. They
delivered state-of-the art, highly-intuitive, visually appealing, role-based dashboards, seamlessly
fed by numerous disparate data sources, and built on a highly-secure and scalable platform.
Gone were the “swivel-chair management,” multiple logins, and non-correlated views from
autonomous data sources and tools. Users at all levels throughout the organization had fast,
easy access to relevant information organized for optimal workflow efficiency.
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This system is helping SPAWAR get the most value from their existing BMC Software
applications and other tools and provides a foundation for quickly satisfying any future
integration requirements. From device-level details to mission-impacting service status the
ENMS technical refresh project has delivered the platform and visibility needed to facilitate
NetOps Situational Awareness and ongoing mission successes.
Conclusion
Edge Technologies transforms existing tools and information into improved visibility,
streamlined workflow, increased operational efficiency, and ultimately, satisfied customers. We
do this by creating integrated views with personalized perspectives of information that can be
shared with diverse audiences wherever and whenever needed. By combining data in new ways
and representing it visually, individuals can derive greater context and meaning from existing
information and make better decisions faster. Edge delivers clarity in a complicated world.
*Note: All dashboard images are UNCLASSIFIED, for the purposes of illustration only, and are not actual SPAWAR
ENMS screens.
Edge Technologies, Inc. 1881 Campus Commons Drive Suite 101 Reston, VA 20191 www.edge-technologies.com [email protected]